SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories from the Lotus Sutra

Dogen-Zenji so cherished the Lotus Sutra that he actually carved a selection of it into his door. This, the core text of not only Zen but the whole of Mahayana Buddhism, has never lost its appeal among practitioners of the Way. Join us for our SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories From the Lotus Sutra led by Sensei Joshin Byrnes, Sensei Genzan Quennell

Series Description: In this weekend workshop, we practiced sitting and walking meditation and contemplated stories from the Zen classic, Book of Serenity, a collection of 100 Zen koans. Our methodology included talks that brought the stories home to our life situations; guided meditation; journaling; and time for discussion in large and small group formats. Zen […]

As a school of Mahayana buddhism, Zen is a bodhisattva path of compassion and love. The boundlessness (or emptiness) of all dharmas means that there is no difference between self and other, self and world, all is radically interconnected, hence without boundary—so naturally we take care of one another. Zazen (zen sitting) shows us with […]

From Oct 15—18 Roshi Zoketsu Norman Fischer & Sokaku Kathie Fischer will be here at Upaya teaching a retreat about the paramitas or THE SIX PERFECTIONS Roshi Zoketsu Norman Fischer on Dogen: …You could imagine: imagine yourself a young boy, in medieval Japan, whose father who was a distant member of the royalty who probably […]

This Wednesday, October 14 at 5:30 p.m. Roshi Zoketsu Norman Fischer will be offering the public dharma talk and presenting his new poetry book, Magnolias All At Once that features his translation of Dogen’s “Uji.” The talk is titled, Magnolias All At Once – Avant-garde Poetry and Dogen on Time. Beginning Thursday, October 15 Norman […]

Norman Fischer practices great humility, but what you see is not all you get. His experiences as a priest, a Dharma heir, an abbot, a poet, a teacher of high school students, a husband and a father have given him an unusually deep and broad wellspring of resources to serve all who approach him.

“Dana paramita, the paramita of giving is expansive. It’s like a constantly open door. One way to think about it is that giving is like wildness, an abundance of nature, where things just constantly give themselves.”